J.J. McCarthy was almost single-handedly responsible for the Minnesota Vikings’ loss to the Chicago Bears, a loss that effectively ended any real chance of making the playoffs.
The Vikings’ defense played well to limit the Bears offense. The offensive line did an excellent job protecting McCarthy. The run game was solid. It was the most penalty-free game the Vikings have played this season. Special teams was a net positive overall. Play-calling was fine. The opportunities were there time and again. And the Vikings offense was seldom behind the chains.
But McCarthy was remarkably inaccurate for the entire game save his last drive. Roughly one in three of his passes was off-target. I counted five receiver drops as well, which combined led to just a 50% completion rate overall, but at least a couple of those drops were on passes with poor ball placement and high velocity, making for much more difficult catches than they needed to be. And then there were the interceptions.
McCarthy’s first interception was a poor read, poor decision, poor timing, and poor throw although he was hit as he followed through on the throw. It was an easy pick for Kevin Byard, who McCarthy didn’t see. The interception happened on a first-and-ten at the Vikings 31-yard line, so not a situation to try to force a throw. And C.J. Ham was open for at least a five yard gain.
McCarthy’s second interception wasn’t as bad, but happened on a first-and-ten from the Bears 30-yard line. He threw it up deep for Jordan Addison on a fade in the end zone and Bears cornerback Nanshon Wright was able to turn and extend for the interception, erasing a nice drive and at least a field goal attempt. Wright had good coverage and position. Not really the situation to put up a 50/50 ball.
McCarthy also missed an open Jordan Addison deep but was both late with the throw and underthrew him. He was lucky that throw was not intercepted. The pass came on a second-and-two from the Vikings 28-yard line. Not a terrible situation to take a shot, but poor execution by McCarthy. He followed that up with an incompletion to Jefferson which led to a punt.
Overall, the Vikings were just 3/11 on third down with punts following a 3rd-and-3, 3rd-and-7, 3rd-and-4, 3rd-and-7, 3rd-and-2, and 3rd-and-8. All of those had incompletions on third down and the last had two incompletions on second- and third-down.
McCarthy’s Poor Performance May Have Surprised KOC
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell praised McCarthy’s performance last week in practice, and after winning the coin toss to start the game, he chose to receive rather than deferring as normal, with the hope of getting off to a fast start offensively. Instead, after a couple first downs, McCarthy had a couple way off target passes that forced a punt. That seemed to set the tone for the game as the Vikings had only a field goal to show for their first nine drives of the game.
O’Connell was careful to deflect blame away from McCarthy as much as possible after the game, not wanting to throw his young quarterback under the bus, but McCarthy himself was mostly at a loss to explain his inaccuracy throughout the game. Asked if footwork was to blame, McCarthy said yes but a lot of things as well. He owned everything, including the interceptions, but it was a tough press conference for McCarthy whose confidence appears to have been a little shaken.
What’s Next
The Vikings playoff chances have pretty much been shot after their loss to the Bears, but they need to spend the rest of the season developing McCarthy and giving him every rep of experience possible. They need to find out if McCarthy can fix his mechanical/footwork issues and move in a positive trajectory.
But this is a critical time for McCarthy. He’s facing mounting adversity and really hasn’t shown much improvement since week one. Quarterback development is not always linear, but McCarthy hasn’t shown much of an ability to learn from mistakes and make the necessary corrections. He has the work ethic and football IQ, but clearly he is struggling to bring what has been learned and practiced during the week to the game on Sunday. Part of that may simply be the adrenaline of the game wreaking havoc on his technique and wanting to make plays to prove himself after missing so much time. Perhaps the pressure of playing at home makes all that worse. McCarthy is 0-3 at home and 2-0 on the road. Whatever the case, it may be a matter of McCarthy simply settling down mentally and emotionally on the field before things will begin to click for him and he begins to transfer more from practice to game.
But clearly something is impeding McCarthy’s development and it will up to Kevin O’Connell, Josh McCown, J.J. McCarthy and Company to figure out what the problem is and correct it. McCarthy is still only five games into his pro career and nobody thinks that’s the juncture for judging whether a young quarterback has what it takes to be a successful starting quarterback in the NFL.
Stay tuned.
Follow me on X/Bluesky @wludford
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